In my last post, I mentioned that the weather here has been absolutely frigid. Well, a couple days have passed and in true crazy weather fashion, our temperatures are now into the 60s. I should mention that that is very warm for this time of year, as our last frost date is usually at the end of April and into May. Nevertheless, let’s take a quick look at the progress and loss in the unheated hoophouse and in the garden. Before getting into the unheated hoophouse, let’s look around outside. First, the drumstick allium bulbs have started to grow. I know that these are the drumstick alliums because of their…

It’s that time again – time to start thinking about winter sowing! Hooray! I’m so excited! In the past, I’ve only winter sowed using milk jugs and other containers. Last year, I ended up with well over 200 bottles sitting in the backyard – it was a complete mess! This year, I’ve decided to try something a little different. Instead of milk jugs, I’ll be using seed starting trays and a small low tunnel covered in plastic. Even though I’ve never seen anyone do this before, my gardening instinct tells me that this method will also be successful. Sometime next week, I hope to post about my seed starting set…

Luckily, I was finally able to finish planting the hardy annual cut flower seedlings into the hoophouse. Though most of these flowers are annuals, I did include some biennial flowers under cover, as well. Here’s hoping for a beautiful spring and summer.

I feel like I’ve been saying it for months now, but I’m so far behind. In a perfect world, the hoophouse would have been planted and ready for winter back in October. Between the weather and the busy thanksgiving holiday – it just didn’t happen. I was finally able to get things situated last weekend. Most importantly, starting with tilling the soil and getting it ready for landscape fabric. The soil in the hoophouse was much more wet than I would have liked to work. Working wet soil always makes me nervous, as the clay in my soil often causes it to turn to concrete. But, I simply couldn’t put…